On last January 16th an educational programme aimed at the children attending elementary schools in Medgidia has been launched. Thanks to an Italian foundation’s financial contribution, STD has been able to train and employ a part-time teacher in charge of the lessons. Alexandra (here depicted with her students) took part to a training course organised by the English dog welfare charity Dogs Trust, and then tailored the contents to the specific Romanian framework. The international organization WSPA provided us with a free layout for printed didactic materials, while the stuffed animals that are given the children have been generously offered by the Italian supporters.

The purpose of the programme – which foresees 4 hours of lessons each class within January and June 2012 – is teaching the children to be conscientious masters of their own dogs, recognizing their needs and respecting them as sentient creatures. During the lectures, Alexandra discusses about straying and birth control, animal welfare and STD’s tasks in the country. Several children have succeeded in convincing their parents of sterilizing their own pet, and our trainer is surrounded with enthusiasm. All the schools in Medgidia have joined the initiative except the Muslim school, although we hope to persuade the relevant school principal soon. At the moment the project is financed for 6 months, however we would like to go on involving Cernavoda’s schools. For the summer we have foreseen a range of outdoor activities, such as visiting our mobile clinic, which may be parked in schools’ courtyards, and STD’s sterilization centre.

We strongly believe that among the desks that we involve today there are the volunteers of tomorrow, those who will promote change in these towns which are still culturally backwards but enclose a high potential in future generations. On this potential STD intends to invest its future. To check all the pictures please click here. See below the short reportage (in Romanian) made by local broadcast Alphamedia: 

You can give your contribution to the educational programme by means of the usual terms of payment on STD’s account.

attività educative · copii caini · dogs children · dogs trust training · educatie medgidia · education program · educazione romania · save the dogs scuole · scoli medgidia · scuole medgidia · wspa care for your dog

On the occasion of the European year of the volunteering, elementary and middle schools in Medgidia have decided to go and scout the non-profit organizations in the area.

So, for the first time, the doors of our shelter and spay and neuter center were open to the kids, who – with our veterinary Alina as their special guide – have discovered that there is a voluntary organization that takes care of the animals living in their town. Alina has explained the activities undertaken by STD to prevent the phenomenon of stray animals focusing on the topic of the “responsible owner“, a fundamental concept that will hopefully form the subject matter of a course implemented in the town’s schools.
The children from the primary school Constantin Brancusi and those from the vocational schools Nicolae Titulescu (118 pupils in all) have also collected bags of food for our four-legged friends.

After visiting, some students expressed their wish to become volunteers and began to regularly visit our shelter, walking the dogs awaiting adoption. These are the first Romanian volunteers of STD, nine years since the beginning of our activities.

We hope this is the start of a progressive involvement of the new generations in STD’s projects, in a country where volunteering is in its infancy and has great need to be promoted.

To see all the photos of the meeting with the children of Medgidia, please visit our album on Facebook.

cani · dogs · elementary school · Medgidia · middle school · scuola elementare · scuole medie · student · studenti · VOLUNTARIAT · volunteering

At the end of November 2008 the president of STD, accompanied by the co-ordinator of the Medgidia team, Andrei Stoica and other co-workers, visited one of the primary schools of Medgidia to meet and lecture the kids. Besides discussing a brochure supplied by the British foundation, Dog Trust, they distributed small gifts and many stuffed animal toys.

Unfortunately, STD has not overcome its stage of serious medico-sanitary emergency and, therefore, has not yet developed an articulated plan of schools intervention. We hope to be able to begin a capillary program of long duration, starting from 2010.

attività educative · dogs trust · educatie · educazione romania · intervento · Medgidia · schools intervention · scoli · scuole

School debates to teach the new generations how to respect our four-legged friends. Our proposal to involve school kids was welcome, by teaching staff and kids of Medgidia schools, with great enthusiasm. Therefore, one of our Romanian co-workers began educational activities at the beginning of February 2007.

The meetings with the kids involved debates starting from a brochure explaining how to take care of your dog or cat, how to avoid being bitten by strays and, above all, how to prevent our four-legged friends from reproducing beyond control. The brochure was financed by the Jane Goodall Institute. STD saw to the purchase of stuffed animals, while our supporters, Angelo and Cinzia D., gave 300 colour T-shirts, which were subsequently personalized with the logo I LOVE ANIMALS. Kids who distinguished themselves in quizzes and competitions won gadgets from Italy.

These meetings represented a fundamental adjunct to the other activities of our mobile
clinic, which often comes across these kids during its visits to the various city neighbourhoods. Without a deep attitude change, as a matter of fact, we know that any sterilize-and-release project is destined to at least partial failure.

attività educative · dogs trust · educatie · educazione · intervento · Medgidia · romania · schools intervention · scoli · scuole